Thursday, July 15, 2010

Further evidence that when reality doesn't match their political needs, Republicans will just ignore reality and lie. The tax cuts for the wealthy that Bush and the Republicans got passed in 2001 and 2003 were completely insane, marking the first time in our nation's history when taxes were cut during war time. But now those tax cuts are about to expire, and the Republicans want more tax cuts. But there is just one problem — Republicans are currently attacking Obama and the Democrats over the deficit, even filibustering extending unemployment benefits. So how can they block unemployment benefits (because they will raise the deficit), while simultaneously wanting to hand out more money to the rich (which will dramatically increase the deficit)? Easy, just lie.

Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) started it by saying on Fox News that he wanted to extend Bush's tax cuts, but that they didn't have to be paid for, even though he insists that unemployment benefits be paid for by cutting other government programs. But the real whopper came from Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who claimed:

There's no evidence whatsoever that the Bush tax cuts actually diminished revenue. They increased revenue, because of the vibrancy of these tax cuts in the economy.

McConnell is trotting out the old myth that cutting taxes for the wealthy raises revenue, because it stimulates the economy. That may be his opinion, but when he said that there is no evidence that Bush's tax cuts diminished revenue, he is blatantly lying.

DIAPERMAN – Vitter needs to look at himself before buying into rumor-mongers like the Birthers. That whole diaper fetish thing may come back to haunt him.

There are only a handful of people in Congress that can compare to Rep. Michele Bachman (R-WTFistan) for sheer, willful igrnorance and buffoonery, but right at the top of the short list has to be Sen. David Vitter (R-Asshatylvania).

Vitter answered a question from an Orly Taserer over the weekend about Barack Obama's, "refusal to produce a valid birth certificate." Rather than just saying "it's already been settled" and rolling his eyes like any sane person, Vitter provided an answer as slick as Lousiana's best BP crude. The answer simultaneously proved he knows the correct answer, is a-skeered of some his own inbred constituents, and has mastered the age-old technique of all charlatans – flinging guano at someone else so as not to get any on their own shoes.

No, he said he supports "conservative legal organizations and others who would bring that to court. I think that is the valid and most possibly effective grounds to do it." In other words, "I ain't sayin' it's true, but it's a mighty interestin' question."

An exclusive first look at 'Treehotel', a lofty new hotel concept in the woods of northern Sweden which aims to elevate the simple treehouse into a world-class destination. The motto of the Tree Hotel: "Feel Free In A Tree".

US senators urged US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday to investigate whether oil giant BP pressed Britain to free the Lockerbie bomber to protect a lucrative deal with Libya.

"Evidence in the Deepwater Horizon disaster seems to suggest that BP would put profit ahead of people," said Democratic Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Robert Menendez and Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey.

"The question we now have to answer is, was this corporation willing to trade justice in the murder of 270 innocent people for oil profits?" the lawmakers wrote in a letter to Clinton.

The lawmakers pointed to a September 2009 report in Britain's Times newspaper -- denied by BP -- that the oil giant lobbied British Justice Secretary Jack Straw for the release of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi to safeguard a 2007 oil exploration deal valued at 900 million dollars.

A delegation of indigenous leaders from Ecuador visited Louisiana to share what they learned in a decades-long battle with Texaco.

by Sue Sturgis

A delegation of indigenous and community leaders from Ecuador visited Louisiana this week at the invitation of the United Houma Nation, a tribe in coastal Lafourche and Terrebone parishes that has been hit hard by the BP oil catastrophe. The Ecuadorians have come to share lessons they've learned dealing with another oil disaster: U.S. oil companies' dumping of toxic waste in the Amazon rainforest.

Arriving in Louisiana, the delegates prepare to speak of their experiences with their own oil crisis.

To view the video documenting the first day of their visit to the Gulf, see the link below, or click here.

From 1964 until it pulled out in 1992, Texacowhich merged with Chevron a decade agodumped some 17 million gallons of crude oil and 20 billion gallons of drilling waste water into waterways and pits in the Ecuadorian Amazon. The contamination has seeped into water supplies, where it's killed fish and is blamed for health problems among local residents, who suffer from elevated rates of cancers, reproductive disorders, and respiratory ailments.

"Although BP says that it plans to take full responsibility for the damages caused by its spill and restore the Gulf Coast to the way it was before, the experience in Ecuador shows that oil companies do the right thing only when compelled to do so by a combination of political, financial, media, and community pressure," says the report, which was prepared by the Asamblea de Afectados por Texaco (Assembly of Those Affected by Texaco), along with Rainforest Action Network and Amazon Watch.

Two brothers are accused of running a huge spam operation in Columbia, targeting about 8 million college students with ads for tooth whiteners, iPods and other goods. Yesterday, a codefendant, 57-year-old Paul Zucker of New Jersey, pleaded guilty to giving spam software and providing proxy servers so Amir and Osmaan Shah could do business.

Here's a PDF of the indictment. It's a little long, 59 pages, but it's kind of interesting to see how they could carry this out. The Shahs are accused of illegally acquiring email addresses for all of those college students and -- for a time -- using Mizzou's own system to send the spam.

If you were wondering who replies to those stupid messages, I'm sad to report that someone does. The feds allege the Shahs made more than $4.1 million.

These days, he's pitching solar energy with a new slogan -- "Shine, baby, shine," -- soon to air on a television near you.

Hagman is the face of a new ad campaign for SolarWorld, the German company making solar cells in Hillsboro. He admits the slogan is a jab at Sarah Palin's "Drill, baby, drill," refrain during the 2008 presidential campaign.

"'Shine, baby, shine' is an inexhaustible source of energy," said Hagman, who plans to address the Intersolar trade show today in San Francisco. "When affordable oil gives out, we're in real trouble -- I mean the collapse of civilization, within 15 to 20 years."

This is nuclear power's summer of desperation. It has just a few short weeks to grab billions in taxpayer funding for new nuclear plants.

Last time we wrote, a $9 billion package was being slipped into an "emergency" war appropriations bill. Amidst a wave of your letters, the vote did not happen. The issue is now in the Senate, and has been greatly complicated by our efforts.

Now the industry is demanding $25 billion for unspecified projects. Again, your voice can make a difference.

Please join us (Bonnie, Jackson, Graham and the NukeFree team) in writing and calling the members of the House, and especially in calling members of the House Appropriations Committee, per the below alert from NIRS, and ask them to oppose this latest industry boondoggle. A key vote may come up as soon as Thursday afternoon.

HOUSE APPROPRIATIONS SUBCOMMITTEE TO MEET THURSDAY, JULY 15. WILL CONSIDER SPENDING BILL THAT INCLUDES $25 BILLION OF TAXPAYER MONEY FOR NEW REACTOR CONSTRUCTION LOANS. ACT NOW! TELL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE ONE MORE TIME: NO TAXPAYER SUBSIDIES FOR NUCLEAR POWER!

Dear Friends,

We have to act again, and we have to act now.

A House Appropriations Subcommittee plans to hold another meeting to try to pass an energy budget for Fiscal Year 2011 on Thursday (July 15) afternoon.

As you may remember, the subcommittee had scheduled a meeting in June but cancelled it when some pro-nuclear Democrats (especially Chet Edwards (Tex.) and Chaka Fattah (Penn.) complained that the bill did not include the Obama Administration's request for $36 Billion to loan to wealthy nuclear utilities to build new nuclear reactors.

Since then, the House has passed $9 billion in new nuclear loans through the emergency supplemental funding bill (the Senate has not yet taken up that bill). Not satisfied with that, the pro-nuclear faction has succeeded in getting the rest--$25 Billion--on the energy appropriations bill that will be considered on Thursday.

Now we have to get this money removed from the bill. And your actions can make the difference.

And if your Representative is on the list below, he/she is on the Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy. Please call his/her office today with the simple message: Vote against all loans for new nuclear reactors. You can reach every member of Congress at 202-224-3121.

We don't need more radioactive waste, more radiation leaks, and higher electric bills--all the things more nuclear power would bring.

We had hoped to begin moving our attention to the Senate this week, which soon will be taking up energy/climate bills--with potentially disastrous nuclear provisions.

But first we have to stop $25 billion in new nuclear loans. So we all need to act, and act fast. Please send your letter here; if your Representative is listed below, please call him/her today.

And, last and probably least, if you can support this ongoing (and seemingly never-ending) campaign, please make a tax-deductible contribution here. Your support enables us to do this essential work.

Over the past few days we've seen an outpouring of support for the proposition that people should go to law school. It's clear that there are many students in law school or heading to law school who believe that they've made the right decision (and it is the right decision, for some people). Moreover, we've learned that a lot of people seem to think that ATL  or, more specifically, me  have some kind of vested interest in crushing dreams and making law students feel bad.

Duly noted. I probably should stick my vuvuzela up my butt and let you guys enjoy the excitement of starting out on a new career.

But as Gandalf once said: "I'm not trying to rob you, I'm trying to help you."

Tuition has risen for the 2010-2011 school year at law schools across the country, even as industry jobs disappear by the month. The most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics report shows 3,900 jobs were cut from the legal sector in June alone, capping off a year of 22,200 job losses

With demand and cost climbing higher and job prospects diminishing, what's happening to the value of a legal education? The answer is questionable, at least for the J.D. credential itself, says Bill Henderson, law professor at the Indiana UniversityBloomington's Maurer School of Law.

You know, when U.S. News  a mainstream magazine that makes money off of people's fascination with law schools  is pushing out articles questioning the value proposition of going to law school, you've got to stand up and take notice.

The information is out there, people. But prospective law students simply refuse to listen:

California-based law school admissions consultant Ann Levine says that dimming job prospects and increasingly high tuition have yet to deter her nationwide client pool from seeking elite placements.

"I had thought people would be more concerned about scholarships and willing to let go of ranking a little bit; I was wrong," says Levine. "Still, people want to generally go to the best law school they can get into, regardless of costs."

While "everyone talks about the cost of tuition," Levine says, "it's actually not going to impact demand greatly because I think people see it as somewhat inevitable and beyond their control."

And it's not going to change. Administrators running these law schools have no incentive to control tuition costs:

In Arizona, where tuition increased at Arizona State University's Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law and University of Arizona Law School's James E. Rogers College of Law, outgoing president of the Arizona Board of Regents Ernest Calderón said graduate schools shoulder more of the budget burden.

"Certainly for the professions that tend to have a significant financial reward on the back end, we believe that students can pay a higher rate  whatever the market will allow for professional and graduate school," Calderón said. "Then, if they have debt, they can retire that."

Employment statistics are not taken into serious consideration, Calderón adds, because his board is not supplied with raw data.

Employment statistics are not taken into serious consideration. The people who control law school tuition openly admit that it has become totally detached from what graduating attorneys can actually expect to earn.

Olivia Walch, 20, is the winner of America's Next Great Cartoonist Contest. (Family photo)

By Michael Cavna

Olivia Walch ordinarily would have seen the announcement for a cartoon contest. As an avid comics-and-crosswords reader, she misses little in the middle of the Style section. Except that in May, while The Post was announcing its contest for "America's Next Great Cartoonist," Walch happened to be sitting obliviously at Oxford, temple-deep in Waugh.

Walch, a rising senior at the College of William and Mary, was completing a semester abroad. The math and biophysics double major recalls being in Oxford University's Evelyn Waugh Room, reading the great writer's works and sitting beneath an imposing painting of Waugh himself when comic inspiration struck. Her dad, back in Fairfax Station, had told her about the contest. "You should do it!" he urged.

The prize was $1,000 and the winner's strip would run for a month in Style and on the Comic Riffs blog, as well as be considered for syndication. Walch, who turns 21 this weekend, had been seriously drawing cartoons for only three years -- topical cartoons for William and Mary's campus paper, the Flat Hat -- but she decided she'd give the contest a shot.

Some 500 other aspiring cartoonists did, too. By reader poll, Walch bested the lot of 'em.

Harvey Pekar, who died on Monday, was unique in underground comics. In a sea of artists like Robert Crumb who wrote and drew their own stuff, Harvey was a writer. Just a writer who wrote about well, himself. Crumb illustrated his "American Splendor" comic along with many other artists who were happy to bring this man's amazing words to life. Paul Giamatti portrayed Harvey in a film entitled American Splendor and he hit the nail on the head. But the thing that I will always remember Harvey for is his appearances on David Letterman.